College is hard! There are all those books to read. Wouldn't it be wonderful to mix the workload up. Like, with some assault rifles?

These images reportedly show a popular class at Nanjing University of Science and Technology in China. The students are studying machine guns and taking them apart to see how they work.

While it might be surprising to most to see a college professor waving around assault rifles, if the students are going to study the weapons, this all does make sense. It's like dissection, but instead of frogs, there are automatic firearms.

When you think of Japan and cosplay, you probably imagine ladies dressed in skimpy anime outfits or dudes in Gundam gear. And you'd probably be right! That type of cosplay is prevalent, sure, but it's not the only game in town—especially with more and more Japanese players totally diggingCall of Duty.

Recently on Japanese bulletin board 2ch, one cosplayer showed off his latest creation: a Juggernaut, which first appeared in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's Special Ops Mode. The outfit weighed a hefty 20 kilograms—30 kilograms when carrying weapons—and took thirty minutes to put on.

Some wondered where someone would go dressed like this, while other said the outfit appeared better when it wasn't being worn. "Isn't this somewhat off balance?" asked one commenter. Added another, "It looks cool. But heavy."

The get up does look better with a large firearm. Running around between warehouses helps pull off the outfit, too.

In case you missed it, here is Kotaku's roundup of some of the best Call of Duty cosplay the internet has to offer.

In a small two story 76 square meter loft located 30 minutes from the northern edge of Beijing just outside the fifth ring road, 27-year-old Wang Xiao Kang sits at his work desk looking at blueprints. Towering right over the slightly hunched Wang on a bookshelf as he reads his laptop screen is a 7 foot tall home-made replica of the Iron Man Mark I armor, and just behind him in his tiny kitchen/living room stands a clay mannequin wearing the Mark III helmet. Wang's perceived obsession with Iron Man is a little bit more complex; it is a love for cool design and a yearning to create something for himself.

Wang, or rather Master Kang, his online handle, has been the talk of the Chinese and Western internets for a while now. He first gained notoriety after a video of his homemade wearable foam Iron Man Mark I armor hit Youtube. We here at Kotaku just recently posted Wang's latest video where he showed off his process for making a mechanized Mark III helmet. While D.I.Y Iron Man costumes are a dime a dozen online, Wang's contribution stands out as one of the best to come out of China.

Originally from Shandong province, Wang moved to Beijing for university. After graduating with a degree in media design, Wang got a job doing web design. The desk job wasn't exactly what Wang wanted to do with his life, but he was happy doing it nonetheless. Then 2008 hit and Wang's life was totally changed.

"I watched Iron Man in 2008 and I was enamored with the armor," said Wang. "The armor, it was so cool, and I just thought it'd be fun to try to make my own replica."

Setting off to create his own Mark I armor, Wang enlisted the help of a few friends, and in June of 2011 he was able to show off his completed costume. Wang says he watched loads and loads of online videos; everything from D.I.Y videos to the official making of videos. One walk past Wang's bookshelf shows that he's heavily invested in special effects design.

"It took a while to get it off the ground because there was a lot that I had to learn about the process," said Wang. "It was a lot of trial and error, and we also had lots of projects working at the at same time."

Wang says that when he was a child he used to work and build things and that he developed a passion for creation at a young age. Growing up and working in design he put his passion into his work. At his day previous day job, Wang had helped and designed a series of non-organic "Christmas Trees".

His brother also introduced him to some work as a prop maker. During the release of the 2010 Hong Kong action film Triple Tap, Wang was "tapped" to make the guns for the Beijing premiere. Because guns are illegal in the Chinese mainland, and it was illegal to transport even model and sports guns from Hong Kong, the producers of the film came to Wang's brother to find a prop maker in Beijing. Wang created "guns" that Daniel Wu and Louis Koo would show off during the mainland premiere.

Ultimately Wang wants to create his own props and collectibles, which he hopes to one day sell. Working with various artists, Wang's come up with a few crazy designs. For now Wang is working on finishing his Mark III armor. With the helmet done, Wang's started working on the suit. Standing in his kitchen at about 6 foot 5, his Iron Man costume right now is just a plastic mannequin with shoulder pads molded out. He says by the time the Mark III armor is done, it will have all the lights and whistles like the movie (sans the firepower of course). Wang expects the armor to be complete by mid 2013.

Wang's currently also working on replicating the helmets of Daft Punk, and playing through Halo 4. He's interested in the Spartan helmet design.

One thing that Wang definitely wants to get across to the world is that while he may be the one making the replicas, he's doesn't deserve all of the credit. Wang works with his friends, various members of the Chinese online D.I.Y community, and an assistant.

"We all help each other out when we can, when I make these videos some of the software guys see what I'm doing and they reach out saying they can help and I'm more than willing to take them on," said Wang. "I know how to make the props, they know how to program them, so everything works out for the best."

(Top photo: Eric Jou | Kotaku)

Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

Lighting Returns, the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII title, uses a time mechanic. In the game, the world has only 13 days left before it ends. In a recent interview with 4Gamer, game designer Motomu Toriyama went into slightly more detail about the game's time mechanic.

As mentioned above, the time limit in-game is 13 days. Square Enix is still nailing down how long one day is in real play time, but Toriyama mentioned that they're now thinking between one and two hours.

However, when those 13 days are up, Toriyama said the game ends. You can extend your time by, for example, completing a quest or defeating enemies. Expect more details on this as the game's release nears.

The game's structure does mean that the way you use your time can result in a different play experience, even different cutscenes, from other players, making Lightning Returns sound like a time management game.

What's more, it's not even possible to see all the cutscenes in one play through. According to Toriyama, this game structure makes it possible to offer a new experience.

I don't get to play a lot of Windows Phone games, mostly because I don't own a Windows Phone and because there aren't enough of them to warrant buying a Windows Phone. However, during last month's game developers conference, I got to play a Windows Phone exclusive game developed by a student team from Taiwan. The game, Cloud and Boy, despite being a very generic game, was quite fun.

Developed by Lunghwa University college students in Taipei, Cloud and Boy is a puzzle game for the mobile. The focus is to stop a smog-spewing factory from, well, spewing smog. To do so, the player takes control of a cloud and, through various weather related actions, drops a boulder into the smoke stack, stopping the smog from emerging from the factory.

Gameplay wise it's very similar to Bad Piggies, and to an extent Amazing Alex and Cut the Rope. The player takes control of a cloud, and through a series of almost Rube Goldberg machine-esque placements of instruments causes a boulder to drop onto the factory.

The cloud, essentially the main character of the game, can be split into two or more clouds which can then be used to create lightning. Lightning can be harnessed to blast boulders causing them to roll. You can also reflect lightning off surfaces. Water can also be added to the cloud to create rain.

Cloud and Boy isn't exactly finished, but for what it's worth it's coming along great. As of right now there is no story to tie things together, only a general list of levels to play. Polish wise, the game looks ready to ship; colors and graphics are crisp and clear. My only issue was that in order to generate lightning I had to hold down on the cloud. I was unable to hold down the cloud and see where my lightning was going, though that might be because I have a big thumb. Being a big fan of puzzle games and a big fan of Taiwan, I'm eager to see how this game will do once it comes out. I'm on the market for a new mobile phone soon and maybe, just maybe I'll make it a Windows Phone.

Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

There are strange people out there! They're filled with malice and evil thoughts. And some of them even have 3DS handhelds.

Considering how neither the 3DS nor StreetPass are exactly new, it's somewhat odd that Yomiuri Shimbun, one of Japan's biggest newspapers, would run a story on StreetPass trauma, but it did anyway after one of its writers got an email about an incident involving the feature.

According to the paper, a fifth grade girl from Osaka got a "game machine" for her birthday. She had been begging her mom for one for a while, saying that she wanted one because other kids in her class also had one. After finally getting one, she promised to only play for thirty minutes a day and to finish her homework first.

While Yomiuri didn't specify that it was a 3DS, the paper did mention that the game machine had a feature called "surechigai tsuushin" (すれちがい通信), which is the Japanese name for the 3DS StreetPass feature. This feature allows 3DS owners to exchange data by simply passing other individuals carrying 3DS handhelds.

Only days after getting the 3DS, she was excited to test out StreetPass for the first time. She carried the portable around Osaka City all day, wondering how many fellow 3DS owners she'd meet or if any of the people were from nearby Kyoto.

The girl crossed paths with five 3DS owners, but it was the last one that shocked both the girl and her mother: the Mii had "Die" written over and over again. This caused the girl to stop using the feature, and the mother felt like her daughter learned a lesson from the whole experience (that there are jerks out there?). The real lesson, though, should have been learning to use parental controls. Always baffled when people don't use those.

Back in March 2011, I entered a whole slew of bad words into the StreetPass Mii Avatar creator. After finishing that article, I forgot to change my Avatar and accidentally ended up walking around all day with a Mii named "Fuck You-san" made by "Fuck You". Felt awful about that. To any of the people I passed that day, sorry!

Some of the most infamous dictators of the 20th century have now been turned into cute anime characters with not so cute accompanying biographies.

The book is Nyotai ka!! Sekai no Dokusaisha Retsuden (にょたいか！！世界の独裁者列伝 or loosely, "In Female Form?! Biographies of World Dictators"), and it features illustrations by various artists, such as Nishieda and Takeshi Nogami, of various dictators from around the globe. The book features forty dictators in total.

The lead image for each biography is done in the moé style ("moé" is Japanese geek slang for the warm fuzzy feeling certain types of characters emit), and the accompanying biographies provide history about the leaders, discuss their political philosophy, and recount incidents from their lives—all in moé packaging.

For the last several years, it's been popular to turn anything and anyone imaginable into cute moé counterparts. Making these infamous dictators "cute" does seem to trivialize them. Though, I guess you could argue that having a bikini wearing Pol Pot lounge on a mountain of skulls makes the Khmer Rouge leader look even more frightening.

Japanese site Akiba Blog recently checked out the book in Akihabara. Have a look at the various dictators in the above gallery.

PS Vita game Soul Sacrifice, which lets yourip out your spine and wield Excalibur, finally has a release date in Japan: March 7. But that's not all. The game is also getting a special bundle, complete with a special Soul Sacrifice emblazoned Vita.

Priced at ¥29,980, the bundle comes with an original Soul Sacrifice version of the WiFi Vita, a copy of the game, ear phones, a pouch and cleaning cloth, a 4GB memory card, a carry strap, and more.

Sony is also offering a "united front" double pack of Soul Sacrifice, which features two copies of the game, so you can play with friends or family who might have a Vita, but not Soul Sacrifice. If you are intent on buying two copies, the double pack is somewhat of a bargain: it costs ¥7,980, while a standalone package copy of the game is ¥5,980 (download version is ¥4,900).

Sports games are no strangers to fans running on the field. Sometimes those individuals are drunk. Sometimes they're just naked—or naked and drunk. Rarely, if ever, are they wearing a Pikachu backpack and truly awful jeans.

As pointed out by Yahoo and ESPN, a fan with questionable fashion sense raced on the field early in the second half of the Bayern Munich vs. Borussia Dortmund soccer match.

Wearing a Pikachu knapsack and looking like he stepped out of 1997, the gentleman's upturned cap read, "Katze!" or "Cats!" The man heroically gave the peace sign and dual thumbs up as he slid on his knees. Security nabbed him and yanked the guy off field. You could say catching this crazed fan was the security guard's real test.

The game might have ended in a 1-1 tie, but the memories of this fan and his bad 1990s fashion sense will live on forever. Never forget!